Today's soundtrack is Dream Theater: Black Clouds and Silver Linings. It's a bittersweet album for me; it's the final Dream Theater album that had Mike Portnoy playing drums. This morning, I created an original VCV Rack modular synth setup: It has a two-voice first and fifth chord pad, and a major scale arpeggio. I used … Continue reading 11.10.2018: 30 Minutes of Songwriting
11.09.2018: One Lesson of Math – Solving Quadratic Equations by Factoring, Part 2
Today's soundtrack is Augury: Fragmentary Evidence, a space-themed, jazzy, technical death metal album with gorgeous artwork. This afternoon, I'm working on the homework portion of the lesson I just did on solving quadratic equations by factoring. I mentioned yesterday that I was going to practice using the quadratic formula based on the information I found … Continue reading 11.09.2018: One Lesson of Math – Solving Quadratic Equations by Factoring, Part 2
11.08.2018: One Lesson of Math – Solving Quadratic Equations by Factoring, Part 1
Today's soundtrack is Ice Dragon: Dream Dragon. A quadratic term is a kind of polynomial; it is "written in the form ax² + bx + c = 0, where a, b, and c are constants and a ≠ 0" (p. 185). We can solve quadratic equations by factoring by using the zero product property, which … Continue reading 11.08.2018: One Lesson of Math – Solving Quadratic Equations by Factoring, Part 1
11.07.2018: One Lesson of Math
Today's soundtrack is Air Supply: Ultimate Air Supply. Nothing really exciting to report today. Spent the last half hour banging my head and trying to figure out how to factor (4x² + 4x + 3)² - 8 (4x²+4x+3) + 12. Finally I got it: I substituted 4x² + 4x + 3 for the variable a, … Continue reading 11.07.2018: One Lesson of Math
11.06.2018: 30 Minutes of Songwriting
Today's soundtrack is Rammstein: Sehnsucht, a true classic. Released nearly 20 years ago, it has aged remarkably well. Anyone who can resist headbanging during "Du Hast" is a stronger man than I. This evening, I'm following a tutorial that will take me through setting up VCV Rack with Reaper. After installing VCV Rack, I opened … Continue reading 11.06.2018: 30 Minutes of Songwriting
11.05.2018: One Lesson of Math
Today's soundtrack is Shania Twain: Up (Red Disc). This afternoon, I'm finishing up my homework from unit 3.1, which covered factoring. I spoke with my teacher about the problems that were giving me trouble and found that I need to substitute variables into the equations like this: Factor 9(x-3)² - 4(2y+1)² Right away, I'm going … Continue reading 11.05.2018: One Lesson of Math
11.04.2018: One Lesson of Math – Homework
Today's soundtrack is The Sword: Apocryphon, an awesome, spacey, psychedelic stoner metal album. I especially love the synth intro on the title track! The album art is gorgeous, too. This afternoon, I reviewed factoring through decomposition of factors. Next, I practiced determining whether a binomial is a factor of a trinomial. After that, I reviewed … Continue reading 11.04.2018: One Lesson of Math – Homework
11.03.2018: One Lesson of Math – Factoring Polynomial Expressions
Today's soundtrack is Lil Wyte: Doubt Me Now, one of my favourite rap albums. An absolute classic. This evening, I'm working on the first chapter of the third unit of my Pre-Calculus 11 course, "Factoring Polynomial Expressions." The general form equation of a trinomial is ax² + bx + c. Thus, if ever we are … Continue reading 11.03.2018: One Lesson of Math – Factoring Polynomial Expressions
11.02.2018: One Chapter of Nonfiction
Today's soundtrack is The Three Tenors: The Three Tenors In Concert, an incredibly passionate performance. This evening, I'm reading the first chapter of the second book of Aristotle's Ethics. There are two kinds of virtue: "intellectual and moral" (p. 55). The former comes by teaching; the latter, by habit. As habit is formed not by … Continue reading 11.02.2018: One Chapter of Nonfiction
11.01.2018: 30 Minutes of Songwriting
Today's soundtrack is Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. I bought this album in circa 2007 at the recommendation of a friend and, while I thought it was "nice," it never really clicked. I've popped it (or rather "them" - it's a dual-disc set) on now and then since then, but I hadn't given … Continue reading 11.01.2018: 30 Minutes of Songwriting
10.31.2018: One Lesson of Math – Unit 2 Test
Today's soundtrack is Visigoth: The Revenant King, probably my favourite heavy metal album released...ever. The lyrics are super fun, and the songs are all memorable. I've been following these guys since they released their free-to-download EP on Bandcamp back in 2013. This afternoon, I wrote my Unit 2 precalculus exam. I think it went really … Continue reading 10.31.2018: One Lesson of Math – Unit 2 Test
10.30.2018: One Lesson of Math – Unit 2 Practice Test
Today's soundtrack is Green Day: Dookie. This evening, I'm doing the Unit 2 practice test in preparation for the unit test that I'll be taking tomorrow evening.
Steven Mills 